جماليات
Volume 10, Numéro 1, Pages 351-371
2023-12-30

The Jeffersonian Architecture Of The Rotunda As A Means To Understand The American Declaration Of Independence (july 04th, 1776)

Authors : Azazga Imene .

Abstract

This paper aims at approaching a historical document through the architectural aspects of a building. It interprets the American Declaration of Independence through the Jeffersonian architecture. It demonstrates the links between the geometric patterns of a building and the written form of the message, the text. It draws the links between both different forms of communication through the epistemological approach and the comparative method. Firstly, our orthographic drawing of the Rotunda’s geometric patterns revealed that the latter’s architecture was based on unity and harmony. Secondly, applying both architectural ideals on the American Declaration of Independence, this study concluded that the colonies argued their separation through the same neoclassical principles of unity and harmony found in the neoclassical architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Keywords

Rotunda library of Virginia university ; American Declaration of Independence ; Architecture ; unity ; harmony